Notes
by TheVampireSlayer
Summary: When forced to sit through a boring retirement speech, Booth and Brennan pass notes to pass the time. Serious and funny, with a side of fluff. BB. Completed.


Dr. Temperance Brennan sighed heavily and glanced over at her partner, who's head was propped up on his hand, a bored expression on his face, staring at the ugly floral carpeting as if it were the most interesting thing he had seen in months. She rolled her eyes as she turned what attention she had left back to the speech. She didn't understand why Goodman made them to this retirement gathering. None of them had even met the man retiring, and she guessed they all had more pressing matters to be concerned with. She looked over at Zach, her brilliant young assistant, and noted the look of utter despair on his face as he checked his watch. She shifted her gaze over to Angela and Jack, who were deeply engrossed in their silent game of Finger Football with a crumpled up napkin. The suppressed a smile and again attempted to turn her attention to the drawling speech. She hadn't been listening for 30 seconds when she saw Booth moving out of the corner of her eye. She again glanced over at him to see him scribbling a message on the pad of paper he always kept in his suit jacket pocket. She shook her head and looked back to the front of the room. _"What on earth could he possibly be writing at a time like this?"_ A moment later, a folded piece of paper collided with her arm and landed on the table near her water glass. On the front, in Booth's scrawling handwriting, was simply **"Bones"**. She glanced up to him only to be met with a boyish grin. She couldn't help but smile back when that adorable grin of his graced his already handsome face, but she tore her eyes away to turn her attention to unfolding the note to reveal just two lines of his somewhat smeared writing. She continued to read: 

**_Bones-  
This speech is sucking the life out of me.  
Want to go to Wong Foo's with me when he's done rambling?  
-Booth_**

She glanced up at him, hand outstretched, waiting for the pen. He fished it out of his chest pocket and slid it across the short distance between them. A few moments later, the pen came sliding back, a note neatly folded and stuck in the clip of the pen cap. He removed it carefully from the clip and opened the note. He studied the neat, curving handwriting that met his eyes for a moment before reading:

**_Booth -  
Don't we always go to Wong Foo's anyway?  
-Bones_**

He smiled at how she used the nickname he had devised for her what seemed like forever ago. He ripped another page out of his notebook and began writing. Temperance, who had been watching Zach pretend to be interested in folding his cloth napkin into different shapes, was startled as his note again collided with her arm. _"You'd think a professional sniper would have better aim..."_ she thought to herself as she unfolded the new message and read:

**_Bones -  
No, like WITH me..as, you know, a date"  
-Booth_**

Her mouth stood open for a moment before she looked up to her partner's sheepish smile. She flipped the paper over to the empty side, picked up the pen, and began scribbling quickly, mind racing. She again attached it to the pen, and slid it back over to Booth, who opened it immediately, eager to see her answer.

**_Booth -  
You know I like you, Booth. Like you a lot. Like you so much that it sometimes interferes with my work when you're standing close to me, or even near where I am at the moment."_**

Booth smiled.

**_That's why I don't know what to do, Booth. I'm feeling too many emotions to understand. Happiness, anger, confusion, fear, desire...Happiness because no matter what, you're always there. There to help me or comfort me, and I like that. Anger because you frustrate me to no end with your stubbornness sometimes. Confusion because I've never had this kind of relationship with anyone before, and I don't know what to do, which is a scary feeling. I'm not used to the uncertainty of things. Fear because essentially, everyone I've ever gotten close to has betrayed me or left me, and desire because I love you...too much to let you go."_**

Booth sat, stunned, going over the words again and again in his mind. He turned toward his partner that had just spilled all of her thoughts and emotions to him to find that she was desperately avoiding eye contact with anyone, stirring the ice in her glass with her straw and looking at it with exaggerated interest. He tore a new page and began writing, making sure to choose his words carefully. A few minutes later, a note was carefully slid across the table to Temperance, who was expecting another piece of paper to be hurled at her arm. Pleased that this was not the case, she picked up the note and began reading.

**_Temperance -_**

She paused for a moment. He used her real name?

**_I know why you're confused, and why you're questioning whether we're a good idea or not. But either way, I want you to know something. I would NEVER intentionally hurt you. You're one of the most important things in the world to me, coming only behind my own son. I would willingly give my life for either of you, and that's never going to change. I love you.  
-Booth_**

Temperance suppressed the urge to cry as she finished the note. She had no idea he felt so strongly about her or their partnership. Just as she was contemplating what her answer was to his original question, applause erupted from the crowd, and people began to stand up and move toward the exits. She turned her thoughtful gaze over to "the squints", and saw looks on all of their faces that clearly read "thank-god-it's-finally-over" as they filed out of the vast dining area. She stood up with Booth, noticing they were among the last few in the room. She approached him carefully, each equally shy and nervous about their current situation. She brought her piercing blue-grey eyes up to his deep brown ones, and spoke.  
"Let's go to Wong Foo's. Together."  
The look of relief that washed over his features was evident, as the boyish grin she liked so much returned to his face. They exchanged smiles and turned to leave, Booth's hand now it's rightful place on the small of her back, and walked out into the night.

End.


End file.
